rebootfandomcom-20200222-history
Number 7
It's a lovely blue sky with thin white clouds and soon turns to Game Cube purple and black. Another new voice intones the 'Warning, Incoming Game". The Game Cube descends on a world completely covered with big dish radio antennae. There are no sprites or binomes in sight in the Satellite System. Matrix, AndrAIa, and Frisket are in a glass-walled elevator rising up the central spire of an antenna. Once again Matrix's negativity is showing. They've left with the game five times now, and the User keeps putting the same game cube back into this same system. *Matrix: I give up. *AndrAIa: Too late, lover. Inside the Game is a series of floating golf-course links. "Oh, great. Another golf game." Glitch doesn't work at all in this game, but AndrAIa has noticed something a lot more important, Mainframe. Or at least an incredible simulation. They walk to the edge of the lawn and look down on the same Principal Office. It looks like Mainframe, but can't be. AndrAIa and Matrix are debating its existence, when they are distracted by Hack and Slash being chased by Bob and Dot on Zip Boards. Bob says, "we'll never catch them". Then Dot winks, and says "Oh, Bob! I have never seen you so angry. Please don't hurt Hack and Slash when you catch them," obviously wanting to be overheard. Of course, the two bumbling mechanoids start arguing with each other allowing Bob to sneak up. He's not really angry at them, but has them "assume the position" and uses Glitch to knock them, golfball wise, into the top of the Tor. Just before he declares a hole in one, Bob circles his eye with thumb and forefinger, and calls out, "be seeing you". Matrix does not believe it is possible to have the entire city as game sprite mode. "The city is firmware, that wouldn't explain Bob, or a functional Glitch." AndrAIa wants to reboot to see what happens, but Matrix is afraid to, he might turn up as little Enzo, and he claims that he has put "that weak little boy" behind him. But it's the only way to find out. The three reboot simultaneously. Frisket turns into Scuzzy. AndrAIa is wearing Hexadecimal's old red costume, and Matrix is the blue metallic Megabyte. "We've gone viral. I guess this rules out the family reunion." Phong is discussing with Bob and Dot the ramifications of Hexadecimal and Megabyte teaming up. The last thing he says is that they must not find out about Number 1 when it becomes obvious that this scene is being replayed on Scuzzy's projection dome. "Stop replay, Scuzzy" says AndrAIa in Hex's voice. Frisket hates being called by that name, and "Scuzzy" displays his fangs. Matrix is sitting in Megabyte's throne. Locating Number 1 must be the objective of the game, but Matrix isn't so sure. His statement triggers more useless chatter from Hack and Slash, which is silenced only when Megabyte's voice yelling "will you two imbeciles be quiet?!". They give the "be seeing you" sign and exit. AndAIa is shocked at this and Matrix, back into his own voice, says that he was just trying to quiet them and that he didn't truly mean to frighten them. Back in the Principal Office, Bob is remarking that Megabyte's change of face is more like Hexadecimal's actions. They are interrupted by a binome warning of an incoming bogie. Matrix/Megabyte flies in on the virus' bike. He goes down a hallway and bursts through the door, talks a bit, and puts his fist down on the table, causing the tea cup to bounce. Matrix tries to talk to Bob, and get them to trust him. "Why should we trust you, Megabyte?" asks Dot. Bob and Dot refuse to believe that Enzo is under Megabyte's skin. Instead, Bob yells out "Your cycles are numbered, Megabyte!" and attacks him with an energy beam. Matrix/Megabyte roars in pain and rage as he is forced to retreat, his image shows up on a VidWindow, and the picture gets X'ed out. Phong declares that he must be filed and indexed. Dot says "be seeing you". Matrix gets picked up by a large mechanical arm and as he is being carried to the file cabinets, he calls out, "No! I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own. You won't hold me!" He infects the arm and escapes. AndrAIa is in the Silicon Tor, sitting in a hemispherical red chair. She thinks she is in touch with her emotions, but Hexadecimal's voice keeps coming through. Matrix drives Megabyte's bike through a hole in the ceiling, and as it shuts down AndrAIa remarks "That's a nice bike!" "What is it with you and bikes?" Matrix wonders. Hexadecimal states the advantages of being like Megabyte. Matrix rejects that, declaring that he will prove to them that he's Enzo... even if he has to delete them all to do it! Phong decides Bob and Dot should meet Number 1. Matrix and AndrAIa follow them from Al's Diner to Dot's Diner. Matrix/Megabyte bursts through the front door and finds... ... a dimly lit room with Cecil and Mike on a teeter-totter, a jury of 12 binomes with face masks (half black, half white), Dot scowling sternly, a giant One (in charcoal and grey), two pits with poles sticking up, and Bob as "Da Judge". Matrix looks baffled then says: "Where is Number One?" as 12 binomes sing "Here Comes the Judge" to reveal Bob as "Da Judge" to silence in court. The defendant is charged with believing that the ends justified the means and with becoming everything he claims to hate. Hack and Slash appear from the pits as character witnesses (singing "Dem Bones") but don't help his case. The jury declares him guilty. Dot strikes Matrix/Megabyte on the chest, then is vanishes when he grabs her. The entire courtroom gets slashed by Matrix in the smoke burnished way, leaving only Hexadecimal's face. She, too, disappears, leaving Matrix alone. He demands to know who is Number 1, and sees a reflection of himself in a VidWindow. Megabyte's voice explains that he, Hatred, is Number 1. The apparition of Megabyte is replaced with one of Matrix, who accuses him of loving only himself. The apparition is replaced with the original Enzo (wearing 01 on his shirt) who argues with Matrix. Matrix: But how? You're me! Enzo: But you hate me. You must! Look at what you've become. Matrix: You're wrong! I had to become bigger, tougher. I had be ready for Megabyte, to survive the games! Enzo: Did you like the games more than Mainframe? More than your family? Matrix: No! No I didn't. I was trapped in the games... Enzo: Games, games, games. It was only a game. You killed my family! Matrix: My family! Enzo: You've forgotten your family! You let yourself become a prisoner of the games. What would Bob think of you now? Matrix (softly): Bob... Little Enzo's last line is: "There can be only one. Be seeing you." He throws a golf ball at Matrix that grows into a white blob as it bounces towards Matrix and smothers him. Matrix wakes up on a golf course. AndrAIa is standing over him and laughing. She says, "The mighty Matrix was knocked for a loop by an errant golf ball." AndrAIa tells him the whole experience was all just a dream; they're on the final hole of Fairway Frolics. Their opponents are a plush tiger and a shark, and AndrAIa is about to finish the hole and win the Game. Matrix declares that they're taking control, and that the search for Mainframe, and Bob, needs to get serious. He asks, "Now, who hit that golf ball?" and pulls out his Gun, scaring the other golfers away. His targeting computer rotates into view, and Matrix blows away the game with a final "Be seeing ya!" References *The entire episode is a spoof of the British 1960s television series "The Prisoner", created by Patrick McGoohan and George Markstein. Specific references include: **The episode title 'Number 7' is a pun on Patrick MacGoohan's unnamed prisoner character, labelled 'Number Six'. Though the number 7 never comes up in the episode, it is the seventh episode aired in Season 3. **"Be seeing you" was a common phrase in the Village where Number Six was held. **Matrix constantly demands "Who is Number One?!" and tries to find this mysterious enigmatic character. In "The Prisoner" series, Number One was the mastermind behind the Village and Six would repeatedly ask who he was. Matrix finds out his own worst parts are "Number One"; in the final episode of "The Prisoner", Number One was revealed to be Number Six (and McGoohan is quoted in The Prisoner: a complete production guide as saying he considered "the evil part of oneself" was the most evil thing Number One could be). **Various scenes in this episode have an electronic-synthesizer rendition of the theme song from "The Prisoner". **Matrix as Megabyte approaches and thumps Phong's desk, rattling a cup and saucer. This parodies the opening scene of "The Prisoner" where the ex-secret agent (Number 6) gives in his letter of resignation to his superiors. **Matrix/Megabyte's capture mirrors the opening scene where after the secret agent resigns in "The Prisoner" his ID card is crossed out by a typewriter and put into a file cabinet by an automatic card picker. **While being carried away, Matrix/Megabyte repeats a line by Number Six in the first episode: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own!" **The quiet Nine butler is a nod to the silent dwarf butler in "The Prisoner". **The courtroom's layout and the jury's masks are modeled after the courtroom scene in the last episode. (Though in that episode, Number Six wasn't on trial) **Hack and Slash are pulled out of pits, singing "Dry Bones"; in the final episode of "The Prisoner", two characters are pulled out of those pits to be put on trial, one of which ("Young Man") constantly sings "Dry Bones". **When Matrix/Megabyte sees his reflection, part of the song "For he's a Jolly Good Fellow" plays. In the last "The Prisoner" episode, this tune was played several times, including as Six went to meet Number One. **Matrix is engulfed by a golf ball blob, a reference to the Village's monstrous guardian Rover (a weather balloon prop). *Hack has a functioning third arm and hand in Matrix's dream. The real Hack was later shown to have this in Sacrifice. *The Jury's chant of "Here Comes Da Judge" is from a 1960s song by Pigmeat Markham. *Dot appears in her Season 1/Season 2 tan jumpsuit, this is the last time the suit was seen in the show. *In the alley a poster reads 'Reservoir Ones' referring to the 1992 film "Reservoir Dogs" by Quentin Tarantino. *Throughout the episode, scoring references and course definitions of the sport Golf are made such as 'Birdie', 'Bogie', 'back nine' and so on. *One of the VidWindow ads features 'Silly Cones – frozen data'. *A building on Level 1 displays the sign 'Terminal'. *A VidWindow behind Dot's Diner reads 'Speculator Cup'. *The Algorithm Theatre displays "A Tale Of Transistors". *Little Enzo's words, "There can be only one" is quoting "Highlander", a 1986 film directed by Russell Mulcahy. *AndrAIa's outfit has a 'Golf Mania' emblem stitched into it. *In the Fairway Frolics Game at the end of the episode, Matrix and AndrAIa's opponents are a tiger, sombrero, and a shark. A reference to famous professional golfers Greg "The Shark" Norman, Lee "The Merry Mex" Travino and Tiger Woods. *This is the only time in which Ian James Corlett has voiced Bob as he originally appeared. *This is also the first appearance of Ian James Corlett as Bob, albeit an imagined version of him. *This is the last time in the show in which the interior of Silicon Tor is shown. *Baudway Sector's appearance is drastically different from the real Baudway; the buildings marked "Baudway" should be symmetrical, but the right set is much higher than the left, and there is an unidentified structure on the central platform. Category:Episodes